Chocolate-Glazed Raspberry Eclairs

February and the kitchen is being painted this week. Ryan chose warm ivory and I chose to embrace warm ivory and the painter is here Monday and Tuesday and we are eating takeout from the Thai place on Western because you cannot really cook in a kitchen that is being painted, even on the non-painting days, because the smell is everywhere and the stuff is stacked on the dining table. We had pad see ew and spring rolls and I did not feel guilty about not cooking because this is an infrastructure week and infrastructure weeks require takeout.

Valentine Day this year is the Saturday before our four-months-to-wedding mark, which I am aware of in a background way that makes everything feel slightly loaded with significance. I have been engaged for eight months and married in four and both of those facts feel both completely ordinary and completely enormous at the same time. That is how I know I am doing it right.

The kitchen is warm ivory now. I will admit: it is warm and it is beautiful and the morning light through the kitchen window hits it in a way that makes the whole room feel different. Ryan stood at the counter Saturday morning making coffee and said see. I said yes, fine, you were right, the kitchen is better. He made an expression I will describe as very controlled triumph and did not push it further. This is wisdom on his part.

I made my first thing in the repainted kitchen on Sunday: a batch of scones for Valentines breakfast, cranberry and orange, with a lemon glaze. The KitchenAid for the mixing, cold butter, a hot oven. We ate them at the kitchen table in the warm ivory kitchen with coffee and it was the best use of a Saturday morning I can imagine. Ryan said it looked like a movie. I said it is better than a movie. He said yes, it is.

The scones were Sunday’s triumph, but the recipe I keep coming back to — the one that felt most right for a Valentine’s morning in a kitchen that finally looked the way it was supposed to look — is this one: chocolate-glazed raspberry eclairs, elegant without being fussy, glossy and red-fruited and exactly the kind of thing you make when the room around you finally feels like yours. If warm ivory walls and morning light and a very controlled look of triumph on someone’s face call for anything, they call for a pastry with a glaze.

Prep Time: 30 minutes | Cook Time: 25 minutes | Total Time: 55 minutes plus cooling | Servings: 12 eclairs

Ingredients

Choux Pastry
1 cup water
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
4 large eggs, room temperature
Raspberry Cream Filling
1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream, cold
3 tablespoons powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup fresh raspberries, plus more for garnish
Chocolate Glaze
4 oz semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 tablespoon light corn syrup

Instructions

Preheat and prep. Preheat your oven to 400°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Fit a large piping bag with a 1/2-inch round tip.
Make the choux dough. In a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, combine water, butter, sugar, and salt. Bring to a rolling boil, stirring to melt the butter. Add the flour all at once and stir vigorously with a wooden spoon until the dough pulls away from the sides of the pan and forms a smooth ball, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool 5 minutes.
Add the eggs. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition until the dough is smooth, glossy, and falls in a thick ribbon from the spoon. Transfer the dough to your prepared piping bag.
Pipe the eclairs. Pipe 4-inch logs onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing them 2 inches apart. Smooth any peaks with a wet fingertip.
Bake. Bake for 22–25 minutes until deep golden and puffed. Do not open the oven during the first 20 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and use a skewer to pierce each end immediately to release steam. Let cool completely.
Make the raspberry cream. Beat the cold heavy cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla with a stand mixer or hand mixer on medium-high until stiff peaks form. Gently fold in the raspberries, breaking them up slightly so they streak through the cream. Transfer to a piping bag fitted with a small round tip.
Fill the eclairs. Pierce each cooled eclair at both ends with the piping tip and fill generously with raspberry cream until you feel slight resistance. Set on the rack.
Make the chocolate glaze. Place chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl. Heat the heavy cream and corn syrup in a small saucepan over medium heat until just simmering. Pour over the chocolate and let sit 1 minute, then stir until smooth. Add the butter and stir until glossy. Let cool 5 minutes until slightly thickened.
Glaze and serve. Dip the top of each filled eclair into the chocolate glaze, letting the excess drip off. Return to the rack. Top each with a fresh raspberry before the glaze sets. Serve within 2 hours for best texture, or refrigerate up to 24 hours.

Nutrition (per serving)

Chocolate-Glazed Raspberry Eclairs — The First Thing I Made in the New Kitchen